Namco says: We Love Katamari

Namco has announced that the PS2 sequel to Katamari Damacy will be released in the US "later this year", whenever the hell that is. And it will be called "We Love Katamari", rather appropriately - a reference to the story, which sees the now-popular King Of All Cosmos fulfilling fan requests for more katamari (the rolling stars, y'know).

Although we're going to call it "We Love Katamari But Not Enough To Release It In Europe Despite The Fact Everybody Over There Is Crying Out For It" or something like that. This once.

Never heard of Katamari Damacy? Righto. You control a little man pushing a ball. The ball picks up things like staples, pins, rubber, rulers, pencils and other worldly objects as it moves around, and they change not only the size of the ball but also the shape as they mount up, with wonderful physics feedback, gloriously manic musical accompaniment and pick-up-able items running all the way from drawing pins to stadiums and hot air balloons.

We Love Katamari features new locations, loads of new things to roll up - "from underwater creatures to mountains and even the Eiffel Tower" - and a two-player co-operative mode will allow players to co-operate in groups of two. Presumably... And to "devise new strategies and communicate their rolling intentions in a new level of katamari madness". Battle Mode, the competitive two-player option, also returns with three size scopes this time around.

So it's out in the US later this year, which is great news, but in the meantime it's out in Japan on 7th July, and you can be sure we'll be importing it as soon as we can. In the meantime, check out the screenshot gallery, complete with some proper-sized ones released by Namco USA. Hooray!